Colombia elections

Not showing up for a Colombian military exam automatically gives one a remiso status – a deserter. With a FARC peace deal imminent, that could change.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won re-election Sunday, surviving a crucial test in his attempt to work out a peace deal with leftist FARC rebels to end the country's 50-year-old civil war.

Negotiators trying to end Latin America's oldest civil war agreed Saturday to set up a truth commission that addresses the deaths of thousands of people in five decades of conflict. The move is seen as a stride toward a possible peace deal in Colombia.

A Colombian National Police sergeant who was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and held captive for 13 years is now a police attaché working in the Colombian Embassy in Costa Rica.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia – Colombian opposition candidate Óscar Zuluaga led President Juan Manuel Santos in elections Sunday, but they now face a runoff vote in a crucial campaign for peace talks with Marxist rebels.

Wiretaps. Drug-gang payoffs. Clandestine videos. Unspeakable insults. Photoshopped campaign pictures. For Colombia's voters, going to the polls on Sunday comes as a catharsis after the ugliness that has marred one of this year's most important presidential elections in Latin America.

With Colombia’s May 25 presidential elections only a week away, it appears that Marxist rebels have reached a landmark accord with the government of President Juan Manuel Santos to cooperate in the fight against drug trafficking.